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Apple is expected to announce its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max at a September keynote, and multiple supply chain sources say the foldable will be nearly impossible to buy at launch.

Getting into it: First reported by Australian outlet Channelnews, citing a Chinese component supplier, Apple is fighting supply, testing, and pricing problems with the foldable, including testing issues affecting production models that have already been built. That report has the phone launching in September in limited quantities, with allocation outside the US tighter still and some markets trailing the US launch by two to three months.

Weibo leaker “Fixed Focus Digital” agrees the first batch will be extremely limited but disputes the US-first framing. He says his sources have heard nothing from Apple about pushing the date back, and that mass production is moving along fine even with hinge assembly issues, so he expects the phone to show up in more than just the US on day one. He also points to Apple’s target of 10 million units and estimates suppliers need three to five months to get there.

For now, the name of the phone is rumored to be the iPhone Ultra, though leaker Instant Digital now doubts Apple will use that name, arguing Apple is saving it for the 20th anniversary phone. Reported pricing sits between $2,300 and $2,500.

The keynote date is still unconfirmed. Channelnews reported Sept. 8, but no iPhone keynote has ever landed on the Tuesday right after Labor Day, and the holiday sits on Sept. 7 this year. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman initially leaned toward Sept. 8 and has since moved to Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 10 a.m. Pacific in the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino.

Everything else on the roster looks conventional by comparison. Fixed Focus Digital says the A20 Pro chip inside the iPhone 18 Pro should deliver up to an 18% speed gain and up to a 30% efficiency gain over the A19 Pro, and it would be the first Apple phone chip off TSMC’s 2nm line, a step down from the 3nm process in use now.